> Can I also claim that my loud college neighbors are torturing me when they stay up too late on the weekend? Of course I can, but it sure is disingenuous to anyone who has actually been tortured.

If they did it for a week straight after you'd lodged several noise complaints and had the police go nowhere, yeah, I think that would qualify. It's certainly not the most severe type of torture but intentionally depriving a person of sleep and attempting to damage their eardrums qualifies.

If your loud college neighbours were setting off a train horn outside your building, repeatedly, I think you'd expect them to be handled by the police (if not arrested) pretty immediately.

If your loud college neighbours were assaulting people in the streets, shouting death and rape threats at you, you'd probably consider them violent.[1] Another post of mine has many more links if you're interested.

I'm not sure how much actual violence is required for a protest to become violent. Is it just that nobody's been killed yet? That seems to be what everyone is waiting for and I sincerely hope we don't get there (thankfully it looks like things may be defusing today).

[1]: https://globalnews.ca/news/8594809/covid-freedom-convoy-otta...

If a person or group knowingly deploys sonic psychological warfare techniques upon innocent people, they are torturers. In this context, the constant blaring of truck horns is deliberate and not meant in kindness or frivolity. The negative psychological effects upon the local residents are now well known and well documented.

Okay but the thing about torture is, in order to be torture you must be prevented from leaving the situation. Are they literally trapping people in their homes? No. You just really really don't like them and so are trying to delegitimize their protest with use of loaded language. Torture means things like having your skin pealed off or your fingernails removed. Torture means things like being imprisoned and repeatedly being made to feel as though you are drowning. Constant honking must certainly be annoying! But as far as I'm aware, protests are supposed to be uncomfortable and annoying. This is not torture. It's like terrorist. The word terrorist now means somebody did a thing that the government doesn't like. Are we going to do this same thing with torture? Because I'm not here for it.

Oh, it's fine, because everyone can afford to go to a hotel for a few weeks, then, right?

Me pointing out that this is not torture, that torture means specific things and that this doesn't meet the commonly-accepted definition of torture, followed by you glibly inserting the phrase "its fine" is a perfect microcosm of why online discussion is doomed. Torture means you are in pain and you cannot stop it. Not by getting on the bus and riding across town, not by wearing earmuffs, it means that you, the person being tortured, cannot stop the torture. This is clearly not the case when there is noise outside your house that you dislike. Words have meanings, let's please stick to using them.

You want to be absolutely pedantic about torture "meaning specific things", and where "commonly-accepted definitions" happen, conveniently, to mean what's more convenient to you.

Dictionaries, on the other hand, define torture as "inflicting pain and suffering on".

The UN Conventions on Torture in no way specify that imprisonment, formal or otherwise, is a required component for something to be defined as torture.

So my opinion is that your vision of torture in this instance is far more narrow, because it fits your worldview more.

I mean maybe, “that last paranormal activity movie was absolute torture.”

I assume (charitably) they mean it in a hyperbolic sense